Concepts that Matter in Countering Extremism
Fatima Sadiqi
Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University, Fez
Introduction
On June 29, 2014, Daesh officially announced the creation of an Islamic Caliphate (Islamic State) in the Levant (Iraq and Syria) and named its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi Caliph. In this announcement Daesh underlined its aim to expand territorially through hijra (migration of Muslims from all over the world to the Levant) and jihad (warfare). To mark its self-proclaimed caliphate, Daesh resorted to the mass abduction, murder, rape, and enslavement of women, especially among the minority of Yazidis. By so doing it wanted to stage a spectacle that the world would be unable to ignore. Daesh’s brutality against its female captives was intended to humiliate the enemy and send a warning to anyone who did not adhere to its extremist, radical interpretation of Islam.
Ever since, the terms “hijra,”“jihad,” and “caliphate,” (Islamic government) have been used amongst journalists, policy-makers, and academics all over the world in relation to Daesh and terrorism. However, the semantic complexity, historical legacy, political usage, and cultural symbolism of these terms are seldom acknowledged, let alone understood.[1] This paper sets out to contextualize and shed light on these terms with regards to earlier Islam (classical and pre-modern eras) where they originate. Rooted in the Islamic sacred tradition: the Qur’an and the Hadith,[2] the three terms became central not only to the Islamic political and legal thought, but also in the believers’ personal and social lives, and have been transmitted through centuries as strong symbols of a cherished legacy and a cement of a common identity, communal belonging, and ideal. While the root meanings of hijra, jihad, and caliphate are found in the classical period, the terms underwent a semantic transformation in the pre-modern period to accommodate new culturally-heterogeneous comers to Islam and regulate their social behavior within an overarching Islamic Umma (nation). The paper aims to underline the importance of understanding the historical and religious aspects of the three terms and their place in the Muslims’ belief system.
The Origin and Development of the Word “hijra”: Early Islam
Hijra[3] (emigration of Prophet Muhammad from Mecca to Medina) coincides with the birth of a collective religious unity of a Muslim community, a new polity, as well as the victories and exigencies of empire-building.In 622 CE, Prophet Muhammad migrated fromMeccatoMedinato escape persecution by Meccans who refused to believe his prophecy. The date represents the starting point of the Muslim era and the Muslim calendar.Muhammadhimself dated his correspondence, treaties, and proclamations after other events of his life. It was Umar Ibn Affan, the secondcaliph, who in the year 639ceintroduced the Hijrah era (now distinguished by the initials AH, for Latinanno Hegirae, “in the year of the Hijra”). Umar started the first year AH with the first day of the lunar month of Muharram, which corresponds to July 16, 622, on theJulian calendar. In 1677–78 (ah 1088) theOttomangovernment, still keeping the Hijrah era, began to use the solar (Julian) year, eventually creating two different Hijrah era dates, resulting from the differences between a solar and a lunar year.
The termhijrahas also been applied to the emigrations of the faithful to Ethiopia and of Muhammad’s followers toMedinabefore the capture ofMecca. Muslims who later quitted lands under Christian rule were also called“muhajirun” (emigrants). TheKhawarij(Kharijites), those Muslims who withdrew their support from the arbitration talks that called into question the right of the fourth caliph,Ali, to thecaliphatein 657ce, used the term to describe those who joined them.The most-honoured muhajirun considered among those known as theCompanions of the Prophet, are those who emigrated with Muhammad to Medina. Muhammad praised them highly for having forsaken their native city and following him and promised that God would favour them. They remained a separate and greatly esteemed group in the Muslim community, both in Mecca and in Medina, and assumed leadership of the Muslim state, through the caliphate, after Muhammad’s death.
As a result of the Hijra, another distinct body of Muslims came into being, the Ansar (helpers); they were Medinese who aided Muhammad and the muhajrun. The Ansar were members of the two major Medinese tribes, the feuding al-Khazrajand al-Aws, whom Muhammad had been asked to reconcile when he was still a rising figure in Mecca. They came to be his devoted supporters, constituting three-fourths of the Muslim army at theBattle of Badr(624ce). When no one of their number was chosen to the caliphate to succeed Muhammad, they declined in influence as a group and eventually merged with other Muslims who had settled in Medina.
As more and more Meccans embraced Islam and in the face of the harsh persecution they were subject to, Muhammad and his followers emigrated to Medina which welcomed them with open arms. The hijra (emigration) marks the formal beginning of Islam and entailed a change from the more peaceful to the more war-associated meaning of jihad.
These early Islam events associate the concept of hijra with both war to preserve and spread Islam and struggle to achieve peace.But beyond these basic meanings of hijra, Muslims have since early Islam bestowed divine qualities and deep respect for the term. Hijra has been associated with the sacred texts (Qur’an and Hadith), religious identity, and sacrifice for self-peace and peace in the community. The fact that the Islamic calendar coincides with hijra brought the concept to Muslims’ daily lives: it punctuates meaningful events in their lives which they celebrate and see as occasions for family gatherings: the birthday of the Prophet, Ramadan, haj (pilgrimage), the end of Ramadan feast (small feast), the sacrifice feast (great feast), etc.Hijra is also associated with individual spiritual retreat and reflection, a sort of emigration to an inner world that brings the individual closer to God.
The Origin and Development of the Word “jihad”: The Classical Era
Kelsay (2015: 86) states:
“Literally meaning “struggle,” jihad may be associated with almost any activity by which Muslims attempt to bring personal and social life into a pattern of conformity with the guidance of God. Nevertheless, early in the development of Islam, jihad came to be associated particularly with fighting or making war “in the path of God.” In thinking about jihad then we may learn a great deal through a focus on war/women.”
The linguistic journey of the term “jihad” is an interesting one. In the foundational period of Islam, this term was infused by both the concept of “accountability before God” and the elevated meaning of hijra. The word did not disappear with the advent of Islamic fraternal wars, the accommodation of new converts and new tribes, or even the wars between sects and tribes. None of these big crises in the history of Islam could remove the symbolically positive meaning of jihad.
Etymologically, the Arabic verbal noun “jihad” is a derived from the trilitiral root {j h d} which means “strive, exert a considerable physical or moral effort to resist something.” This word and its derivatives appeared first in the Qur’an;[4] here are two samples:[5]
“Those who believe, and emigrate, andstrive (jahadu) in the cause of God with their money and their lives, are far greater in rank in the sight of God. These are the winners.”(9:20)
“The true believers are those who believe in God and His messenger, then attain the status of having no doubt whatsoever, andstrive (jahadu) with their money and their lives in the cause of God. These are the truthful ones.”(49:15)
The two samples refer to two different meanings of jihad. The first one is war-associated and denotes war action for the Islamic faith against unbelievers, a struggle in defense of an Islamic value deemed worthwhile by a believer, and an endeavor to build a good Muslim society. This meaning needs to understood against the wider context in which Prophet Muhammad did not leave a “state” but a community of believers that should struggle to remain so. It is telling that other Arabic words are used to denote war action in an unambiguous way: qitaal and harb. Further, the Qur’an is a book of spiritual revelation, not a systematic legal treatise.
The second Qur’anic meaning of jihad is associated with an individual’s internal struggle against baser instincts, often understood as an elevation of the spirit away from instinct and closer to God. This meaning of jihad is predominant in the surats that descended in the first decade of the seventh century while the Prophet was in Mecca, his home town. It was used by Prophet Muhammad as a strategy to gain more willing adherents This meaning is corroborated by the fact that the beginning of Islam was not associated with violence. The Prophet was instructed to proclaim Islam as complete unity with God in a peaceful way first to his closest kin and friends, then gradually to the members of his bigger family and community.
The Qur’anic use of the word jihad is often followed by the expression“fi sabilillah” (in the path of God), a way of “sacralizing” warfare against the enemies of Muslims which otherwise would not be different from pre-Islamic tribal warfare (Streusand, 1997: 17).
“It important to note that while the religious justification for waging jihad is clearly stated and developed in the Qur’an, Prophet Muhammad never formally called for jihad or used the term.”
The transition from the more peaceful to the more war-associated meaning of jihad coincided with hijra which marks the formal beginning of Islam. Hence, in Medina, jihad meant warfare and was used to gain more followers and territory. The first surats that descended in Medina address the causes of jihad and underline the justice aspect of military activity. The purpose of jihad then wasto correct what is wrong and believers who engaged in this action received the highest rewards upon death:
“Our Lord is Allah. Had Allah not repelled some people by others, surely monasteries, churches, synagogues and mosques, wherein the name of Allah is mentioned frequently, would have been demolished.Indeed, Allah will support whoever supports Him. Allah is surely Strong and Mighty. (22:39–40)
In the second source of Islamic shari’a, Hadith, jihad means “armed action” as no less than one hundred and ninety-nine references to this meaning are recorded in Sahih al-Bukhari, widely considered the most standard collection of the Prophet’s Sayings (Streusand 1997). However, jihad is not treated in an exhaustive manner in Hadith. Several Hadiths served only to annotate or explain specific topics that were only alluded to or foreshadowed in the Qur’an.
“Muhammad, upon him be peace, was closer to them (believers) than their own selves. The (pagan) Arabs and Jews had formed a united front against them - Muhammad pbuh and his followers) and had put up all their efforts of enmity, standing and fighting against them... and (in fact) they shouted against them from every corner. Then, at that time Allah permitted them (Muhammad pbuh and his followers) the (Jihad) fighting but He did not make it obligatory. He said: “Permission to fight is given to those (i.e. believers against disbelievers) who are fighting them (and) because they (believers) have been wronged, and surely Allah is able to give them (believers) victory.” (Hadith)[6]
The primary meaning of jihad in Hadith, namely military action to either expand Islam to other lands or defend Muslim lands against foreign aggression, prevailed after the death of the Prophet and along the history of pre-modern and modern Islamic political thought. Classical Muslim jurists and legal scholars reinforced this meaning (Lewis 1988). The Ulama’s (religious leaders) duty was to see to it that jihad was practiced. Notwithstanding this meaning, Muslim communities were never instructed to indulge in continuous collective jihad (and certainly not against other Muslims) and individual Muslims were never instructed to carry out jihad as an individual duty. Jihad was first and foremost an integral part of devotion as a community’s strategy to ensure Muslim’s attachment to their religion for survival and reward in the afterlife.
In parallel, the non-warfare meaning of jihad never died out as the vibrant history of, for example, Sufi Islam attests to. The two aspects of jihad have always co-existed and have at times positioned Islam at the heart of debates and polemics between those who see this religion as a source of violence and those who present “apologetic” counter-arguments. This is well explained in Streusand (1997: 10):
“For the jurists, jihad fits a context of the world divided into Muslim and non- Muslim zones,Dar al-Islam(Abode of Islam) andDar al-Harb(Abode of War) respectively. This model implies perpetual warfare between Muslims and non- Muslims until the territory under Muslim control absorbs what is not, an attitude that perhaps reflects the optimism that resulted from the quick and far-reaching Arab conquests. Extending Dar al-Islam does not mean the annihilation of all non-Muslims, however, nor even their necessary conversion. Indeed, jihad cannot imply conversion by force, for the Qur’an (2:256) specifically states “there is no compulsion in religion.” Jihad has an explicitly political aim: the establishment of Muslim rule, which in turn has two benefits: it articulates Islam’s supersession of other faiths and creates the opportunity for Muslims to create a just political and social order.”
In addition to dar al-Islam and dar al-harb, a third status began to be recognized by some scholars after the ninth century: sra al-‘adl (abode of truce, meaning territories that established a contract with a specific duration to live in peace with the Muslim community[7]. Whether meaning “warfare” or “non-warfare,” jihad is intertwined with some type of political and religious authority.
The Concept of Jihad in the First Islamic Civil Wars (Fitnas)
The term “fitna”(fraternal war, chaos) is used in the Qur’an with the primary sense of “insurrection, ” “revolt,” or “civil war” between Muslims and within an Islamic state that breeds schism and in which the believers’ purity of faith is in grave danger. As such fitna is different from jihad, which is supposed to take place between believers and non-believers. Five fitnas took place in the history of classical and pre-modern Islamic political thought. Thefirst fitna (656–661 CE), also called “the fitna of the killing of Uthman,” is the first Islamic civil war between Ali Ibn Abi Taleb (Muhammad’s son-in-law, fourth caliph, and first Shi’a caliph) and Aisha (the Prophet’s youngest widow) and in which Uthman Ibn Affan, the third caliph was assassinated by rebels from Egypt. This war continued through the four-year rule of Ali Ibn Abi Taleb and marked the end of the Rashidun caliphate and the beginning of the Umayyad dynasty.[8]
Thesecond fitnais divided by historians into two part: 680/683 and 685/692. The first part followed the death of the first Umayyad caliph Mu’awiyya I and his succession by his son Yazid I in 680. Opposition to this succession took the form of a rebellion headed by the supporters of former caliph Ali. Yazid I sent troops to kill Ali’s son Hussein in what came to be known as the Battle of Karbala. The second part of the fitna was ignited by Abd Allah Ibn al-Zubayr (son of one of the prophet’s Companions: al-Zunayt Ibn al-‘Awwam and one of the Prophet’s widow and daughter of the second Rashidun caliph: Asma Bint Abu Bakr) in 685.
While the first part of the fitna was caused by a desire for a return of the Shi’a rule, the second one expressed a revolt against Umayyad rule and a desire for a return to the pristine values of earlier Islamic community, exemplified by the first Rashidun caliph Abou Bakr al-Siddiq, father of Asma Bint Abu Bakr. The second fitna plunged the Umayyad in a complex turmoil of events after the sudden death of Yazid I and his son Mu’awiya II in 683. Ibn al-Zubayr became more popular and took over as caliph. He was however seriously challenged by both Shi’a opposition to his rule and the proclaiming of Marwan ibn Hakim, a cousin of Mu’awiya I, as caliph in Syria. Although Marwan had a short reign dying in 685 he was succeeded by his powerful sonAbd al-Malik who was able to defeat various rivals, including the Kharijite[9]inIraqandIran (who established an independent state in central Arabia in 684), the Shi’a inKufawho sought to avenge the death of Hussein and promote another of Ali's sons as a candidate for caliph. Ibn al-Zubayr, for his part, was isolated in theTihamahand the Hejaz, but was eventually killed by Abdel Malik’s troops ina siege of Meccain 692. This brought a period of exceptional turbulence to an end.